Two Eastman School of Music faculty members have been quarantined in Guangzhou, China, after sitting near an airline passenger infected with swine flu.

The teachers, whose names have not been released, will be confined to their hotel rooms for at least another four days, said Eastman spokeswoman Bobbi Lonobile. They were on a May 24 flight from JFK Airport in New York City to Beijing, part of a cultural exchange program with six other Eastman musicians. It is not known how many others in this group shared Sunday’s flight.

“My understanding is that (the two faculty members’) health is fine, but they were seated near a passenger with the H1N1 virus,” said Lonobile. “They’re quarantined based on the rules.”

The High Falls International Film Festival has named John Richardson as its new executive director. Richardson was president of the festival’s board of directors from 2002 to 2009 and was previously a public affairs director at Eastman Kodak Co.

Rosie Taravella has held the position since 2007 and led the festival through its recently concluded event, which included 80 films viewed by more than 10,000 attendees and featured celebrities such as Lynne Redgrave, Lesley Stahl and CCH Pounder. She is moving to Syracuse to take a position as vice president of corporate advancement for WCNY.

According to new board president Stephanie Gradinger, Richardson was a natural choice due to his experience with the festival and his relationships in the film industry. Taravella stays on until June 15.

Our esteemed Eastman School of Music competitor, Zhang Zuo, did not advance to the semi-finals of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition this week, announced Tuesday night. But making the competition is quite a large acheivement and we applaud her efforts, which surely will continue to pay off with a successful professional career ahead.

Zuo did receive a number of compliments from reviewers, including official Van Cliburn blogger Mike Winter who said, “Musically she possesses innately gifted musicality.” Scott Cantrel in the Dallas Morning News seemed to be put off by her speedy renditions of the repertoire, saying, “The technical brilliance was amazing, but just because you can play the Liszt Feux follets and the fast parts of the Liszt B Minor Sonata at such dizzying speeds doesn’t mean that you should, or that the music is served by doing so.”

Perhaps that’s what the judges felt, or maybe with 29 of the world’s top pianists on stage one after the other, you’re either lucky or you’re not. It seems from all the reviews, there was very little to complain about in any of the pianists’ showings.

Deciding which Finger Lakes landmarks to visit can be a full afternoon’s journey through tourist brochures and road maps. The task just got easier with the launching of Podcast 2 the Past.

It offers a sampler of architecturally or historically significant sites to consider in Ontario and Steuben counties. Potential visitors get 90-second glimpses of such attractions as Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion in Canandaigua, Belhurst Castle in Geneva, the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondport and the village of Clifton Springs.

The podcast includes audio and visual components that can be downloaded to a computer and transferred to MP3 players such as an iPod. The program was created by the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection and the Steuben County Conference & Visitors Bureau. For more, go to www.Podcast2thePast.com.

Out-of-work museum lovers can visit Genesee Country Village & Museum for free through May 31.

The Mumford landmark is making this unusual offer to unemployed workers whose budgets may not allow them to enjoy a regular vacation. After showing proof of unemployment, they can bring up to three members of their immediate family. Visitors can tour the village of 19th-century buildings, see exhibits at John L. Wehle Art Gallery or stroll in the woods at the Genesee Country Nature Center.

The offer doesn’t include Memorial Day observances on May 25 or the Civil War Candlelight Tours. The museum at 1410 Flint Hill Road is closed Mondays. Call (585) 538-6822 or go to www.gcv.org.

Holst’s The Planets is so magnetic that it’s understandably an audience hit. But don’t be mistaken by its populous appeal. As with any truly great work, it’s as much at home on a classics concert as a pops.

But that’s an easy fact to forget going into it with the made-for-Hollywood themes of Jupiter running through the ol’ noggin (At the risk of sounding like a lay person, one particular melody conjures up visions of the movie Braveheart.). Hearing it tonight at the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s final Philharmonics Series concert, it was a reminder of the work’s vivacity, but mostly its versatility.

Britain always had a small identity problem in the world of classical music until composers such as Vaughn Williams and Holst. It lacked a widely appealing national sound, the way the Russians, Germans, Italians and even the French had. Music from these countries are as identifiable as their flags.

We wish Zhang Zuo, an Eastman School of Music pianist, well as she embarks on the preliminary round of this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Pianists take the stage starting tomorrow for a grueling competition, running through June 7.

This year’s competition is being webcast in full, so you can catch any or all of the competitors by visiting this site. Zuo performs on Saturday at 9:40 p.m. Selected pianists for the second round will be announced on Tuesday at 10 p.m.

There is also an “audience vote” this year, so make sure you vote for Zuo or any other pianist who moves you during the competition. Audience votes aren’t factored for the competition, but audience favorites will receive recognition in the final awards ceremony.

WGMC-FM (90.1) teams up with the art warehouse and gallery Artisan Works for a fundraiser aimed at keeping jazz on the radio called Art Loves Jazz. The event, which includes live music, gourmet food and a silent auction, happens on Thursday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Artisan Works, 565 Blossom Rd. Tickets are $30.

Jazz radio is facing extinction and Jazz 90.1 is one of the few full-time jazz stations left in the country. Support your local jazz radio station.

Mayor Robert Duffy today announced the details of his city budget cuts for the 2009 to 2010 budget. In it were a few surprises for arts organizations in Rochester, who are included in the trimming efforts.

The list of organizations that will receive less money next year included the Rochester International Jazz Festival, High Falls Film Festival, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Puerto Rican Festival.

The RIJF takes the largest cut, going from $250,000 to $223,000 for next summer. Festival organizers have only been able to comment that this year’s festival is going ahead as planned.

A nine to 10 percent cut will ensue for both the RPO and the HFFF. The RPO typically receives $75,000 a year from the city to produce two free city concerts, as well as an educational program for area third graders. That amount will be reduced to $68,000 for the next season.

Disney’sThe Lion King premieres this weekend in Las Vegas. And Rochester choreographer Garth Fagan, who created dances for this musical, has been rehearsing its cast - as he often does when the showheads to a new locale.

He’s ecstatic about the Las Vegas actors, but even more about the show’s glitzy new venue: Mandalay Bay hotel and casino. It boasts a 1,600-seat theater, an 11-acre beach and an artificial river.

“And it has a wave pool, which is fantastic,” says Fagan, describing a 1.6 million-gallon pool with waves up to six feet. (The rumors about Las Vegas being in a desert were obviously overblown.)

But he has slight misgivings about the resort’s reclining seats. They make it all too easy to sip one of Mandalay Bay’s potent rum cocktails – a bad example for Simba, or any Disney fan trying to meditate quietly on The Circle of Life.

Jeff Spevak has shaken the hand of Johnny Cash. He has done a shot of whiskey with Bo Diddley. He sang with Tina Turner for 12 seconds. His Top 10 albums of all time include 17 by Bob Dylan. He likes dogs, the Cleveland Indians and wine. His favorite books are Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He likes to eat Chilean sea bass.

Catherine Roberts: Lead Local Editor/Life, is the mother of two teenage boys. She's so used to being overbooked that when there's a spare moment, she feels the needs to know what's going on around town to fill the gap. Favorite things in Rochester include the museums, Red Wings games and concerts. But most of the time, you'll find her and her husband, Chad (the Democrat and Chronicle's overnight editor), at a bowling alley, the sidelines of a ball field or walking a dog in their Irondequoit neighborhood or Durand-Eastman Park. If you have any ideas, please email at cathyr@DemocratandChronicle.com

Diana Louise Carter was born at Rochester General Hospital the same year it opened and reared in Bristol, Ontario County. After college and grad school, her first reporting job was on a small newspaper in Western Massachusetts. She returned to Rochester in late 1987 to work for the Democrat and Chronicle. Carter covers agriculture and banking. She lives in the Upper Monroe neighborhood of Rochester with her husband and three children.

Anna Reguero, a former Democrat and Chronicle music critic, a clarinetist and a graduate of Eastman School of Music, is a doctoral student in musicology at State University of New York at Stony Brook.